Our Mission

Our mission is, simply, to help our neighbors with food and support. We are an equal opportunity provider, and we make it as simple and accessible as we can for our community members to get the nutritional support they need. We are an all volunteer organization, and without our volunteers would could not do what we do.

Our Story

Frank Hare, with other local pastors in Athens OH, started the Athens County Food panty in 1980. His dedication and leadership helped the pantry grow from a collection of churches united to serve families to a vital organization that continues to advance its mission of fighting food insecurity in the region.

Our Growth

In his 2019 Heisman Trophy acceptance speech, Joe Burrow, a star college quarterback, talked about food insecurity in his hometown of Athens, Ohio. His heartfelt words inspired a Facebook fundraising campaign, which received massive support. This led us to create our endowment, called the Joe Burrow Hunger Relief Fund, and to expand our services. While the endowment helps, we still must rely on continued donations from our loyal friends and supporters to serve hungry families.

Our Impact

With sharply rising food costs, we continue to provide a lifeline for the many food insecure families in our region.

Athens is one of the poorest counties in Ohio, with a current poverty rate of over one in four families.

Read our latest news to find out more.

What We Do

We provide a three-day emergency or supplemental supply of food per household, consisting of shelf-stable goods, with fresh produce, bread, eggs, and frozen protein, as available. Eligible households can receive food aid once a month.

We serve from the Athens County Department of Job and Family Services building outside Chauncey. The Food Pantry delivers food occasionally at two other locations when needed, and through our On the Road Program.

An important aspect of our service to the community is continual evaluation of how we can use our donors’ dollars to best meet the needs of our clients. In Athens County, we are seeing significant unemployment and underemployment, a lack of reliable transportation keeping many from earning livable wages, coupled with high housing and utility costs which directly result in more and more underfed people. With rising food costs, we continue to see more people who visit us to help us make ends meet.

Our aim is to understand the needs of those we serve as our friends and neighbors. That’s why we’re continually fine-tuning our program to ensure that we are maximizing the impact of our funds and that we are providing an ever-growing number of clients not only with the staples, but with healthier, fresher food choices as well.

We are an equal opportunity provider.

Board members sitting around a table in the pantry for a meeting.

Our Leadership Board


Karin Bright, President

Jeff Frymier, Vice-President

Erin Bright, Secretary

John Laughlin, Treasurer

Mick Andzulis

Claudia Bashaw

DeeDee Dransfield

Dave Gehlauf

Ryan Ham

John Hauser

Reggie Morrow

Keith Wiens

Contact Us

We're an all-volunteer organization, so it may take a bit for us to get back to you. If you need a quicker response, call or text us at 740-590-7051.


Physical Address: Athens County Food Pantry, 13183A State Route 13 Millfield, Ohio 45761

Email: [email protected]

Mailing Address: Athens County Food Pantry, 9 N. College St., Athens, OH 45701

Hours of Operation:

Mon - Fri: 10am to 3pm

Saturday: Closed most Saturdays

1st Saturday of the month: 1pm to 3pm

Sunday: Closed

We are a Gold Guide Star Participant

Sign up for our Newsletter

Sign up for our newsletter so you can become a friend of the Food Pantry.

We'll send you a few updates a year on what we are doing to fight hunger and food insecurity, what it's like "behind the scenes," and how we are working to serve more families.

As a special bonus for signing up, we'll send you a link to our "Recipes of Iconic Athens Restaurants and Chefs" PDF booklet.